The Mighty Waal ( again )

The Ijssel was a bit of a disappointment. The river had dropped four or five feet since we'd last seen it a couple of weeks ago.

Plenty of fish but nothing really exciting.  I failed on the barbel and the asp. The asp deserve a separate post, they are the most infuriating fish in the world.

So, on to the Waal to meet up with some Dutch friends. The lady at the campsite told me that all the locals were saying it was fishing crap.

Luckily she was referring to the old boys fishing for zander and eels for the pot.

We parked the van up, right by the river, put the kettle on and then I grabbed my gear for a couple of hours on the feeder.

An hour in the bay, where I'd caught those big roach before, proved fruitless.

I moved on to the main river. First chuck an ide of 4lb 13oz, second cast Roach 1lb 15oz,  third cast Roach 2lb 7oz.  Now, that's a good start in my book.

I retired to the camper, poured a beer and sat outside in the gloaming, listening to the crickets and the huge cargo ships rumbling on down the river.

I'm a thirteen year year old boy in a sixty one year old man's body, so I couldn't sleep that night, thinking of all the huge roach that were one cast away.

Sunrise was still half hour away as I baited up and filled the feeder. First chuck I waited less than a minute before the tip straightened and I was in to to something unseen in the murkey depths. In the half light,  as the fish surfaced I wasn't sure what it was, but as I lead it over the net there was no doubt. 

A huge roach of 2lb 14oz. 

After that it got a silly. More massive roach of 2lb 3oz, 2lb 6oz  and 2lb 13oz, ide of 5lb 2oz and 5lb 1 oz, plus two big fours and lots of bluenose and bream.

The following day was similar. Three big roach of 2lb 8oz,  2lb 6oz and 2lb 2oz, lots of bluenose topped by a corker of 2lb 13oz and a couple of big ide.

They main issue was finding where the fish were. Most of the time they were in the main flow, where a 60 gram feeder with legs would just about hold. The occasional fish came in the slack water in the bay, but not many.

Simple self hooking feeder ring, short 10-22 inch trace, size 10 Guru Feeder hook ( brilliant ) usually with push stop. Everything on sweetcorn, seed and corn in the feeder.

I thought it couldn't get any better...

but it did.